Duty day today so 74 phone assessments, 32 face to face assessments, over 60 tasks, over 105 pathology results, 10 letters to action, endless paper scripts to sign alongside over 100 on eps, other paper hospital prescription requests, queries from DNs, an extra hours worth of stuff from the office to sort through. If the paramedic attached to the surgery hadn't been able to do the home visits I would have been finishing after 10pn tonight having only left the surgery around 9pm and having started at 7:30am with no lunch and no break all day. There you go there's your survey answers for the majority of us I suspect!

I see where you come from , Jaimie , and also understand people would have scepticism on this kind of survey . But I see this in a different angle : My opinion is Pulse has established , at least unofficially , a reputation of reflecting the dark reality of what has been happening in general practice. And as I wrote , in the past , people with different political backgrounds have been ‘monitoring’ or even ‘infiltrating’ this platform . Evidence and history are undeniable on that . In a way , Pulse is influential , in my opinion.
So Pulse is in the perfect , political position to provide evidence on a survey to raise a narrative about the GP workload and I fully support you , Jaimie .
And I am speaking as an witness of three generations of brilliant PULSE editor : Steve , Nigel and yourself.
And I am speaking as an witness of three generations of brilliant PULSE editor : Steve , Nigel and yourself.😄

It might be interesting to reflect on how may GPs on the day in question aren’t at work. I for one have virtually given up practice because when I do on a regular basis it’s more than I can handle. I work as a Locum because when I have been salaried after a couple of years my mental health suffers and I have to stop. The intensity and demands of the continuous unrelenting slog of seeing patient after patient with all the associated administrative drudge peppered with sporadic, infrequent but highly warring complains makes regular ‘full time’ working, for me personally, an almost suicIdal proposition. This is doubt due in part to my own personal constitution, but I am in no way a flake, and I’m sure there are many like me. I often read comments in the wider media reflecting on the fact so many GPs work part time...this is a consequence of the intensity of the work and I hope this can somehow be drawn out in the survey in some way to guard against the inevitable misinterpretation of GP part times as somehow a sign of us being over paid and lazy..this couldn’t be further from the truth. The level of general attrition in the work force is not sustainable and needs to be addressed. Keep up the excellent work.

Alan Almond: as a 'part time' GP,I probably work longer hours than most full time non doctors. Oh, but I do get part time salary.
I barely manage to stay sane for 7.5 sessions per week. I often wonder how 'full time' GPs survive.
The general public have absolutely no idea of how hard we work, and no interest either. But let's face it, or colleagues in other medical and surgical specialties don't know either, and generally think we are lazy and overpaid.

Might be helpful to have a ‘ready reckoner’ For completing the survey as the day goes on. I don’t always remember all the DN phone calls ‘just wanted to run this by you’, extra scripts / queries etc. Could a simple table be uploaded on the pulse website with information you are looking to capture, I can then print out & record during the day? Thanks